With the change in the season, comes a need for change in all areas of apparel, including the mundane and practical such as sleepwear…
I did have a few highblown and fancy ideas for my summer jammies this year, but got real and decided to be practical… for over a year, this purple fabric has languished in my stash. It wasn’t always this gare-ish colour. In fact I bought it as a subtly beautiful white-on-white floral-embossed fabric. About two years ago, hehe. Was uninspired for a year or so. Then had a brainwave, hopped over to the dye section of Spotlight one visit and purchased some vivid purple dye. Had visions of a vivid deep deep purple blouse, with, I dunno, raspberry buttons, or something equally exciting. Can you imagine? This is when I was trying to colour up my wardrobe, my only excuse. Plunged the fabric enthusiastically into the dye bath. Even took a photo, of my “work of art in progress”, hehe. As you can see, the differences the embossing made to the nature of the fabric surfaces made for a less than beautiful end result. At the time I likened it to a sort of Willy Wonka-ish nightmare after a too-rich evening meal. With a slight shudder, I stuffed the fabric quietly into the back of my fabric cupboard, and moved on, got on with life. An important dye-ing lesson learned; TEST A SCRAP FIRST.
But a year later, I’m coming round, getting realistic about using up the stash. The fabric is nice quality; fine and thin, not terribly crushable, is breathable. I’m not as horrified by the print any more. I figured this could work as pyjama bottoms. I also had an old Tshirt that I was no longer wearing (I know, old Tshirts are so passe as sleepwear, but this was still in very good nick and still looks pretty good, just I’m not into it any more)
So voila. The pyjama bottoms are drafted from an old nicely fitting pair that I had from years ago and have kept rolled up with my pattern collection for this very reason. I added pockets, because I had some leftover after cutting out the main pieces, and so why not… and some ribbon ties at knee level in case I want to bunch the pants up to knee level when the temperatures ramp up. The waistband is enclosed elastic and the lime green ribbon tie at the front is purely decorative, I also sewed on a false fly and three non-functional lime green buttons on the fly.
Details:
Pyjama bottoms; drafted from old pair, purple dyed cotton mix
Pyjama top; Aztec Rose
